Directions II

The problem with thinking about a new direction for the blog is that it's keeping my mind too busy.  I continuously write stuff in my head and that includes when I wake up at 4:30 or something.  Dropping back to sleep is not that easy with this kind of mental disturbance going on.

So, maybe I'll tell the story of the ice cubes that would not melt and I'll see if I add a bit of humor to this deathly serious inquiry...

<First section, set the scene and introduce the characters.>

We had just finished the first round of  the year.  The day had started with a frost delay.  If you don't play under that condition, let me say that the toes start frozen and so do the fingers.  The ground is crunchy under the feet.  You can hear it, but since the toes are frozen, see above, you can't feel it.

The greens keepers like to keep their greens alive and they make us wait until the sun melts all the frost.  Sometimes you have a place to wait where it is warm and sometimes you are huddled on a side walk.

Hand warmers are quite popular.  They came in chemical models which are "use once and throw them away. " You get them in the handy 40 pack for about $15 at Costco, or about $3 per pair at the local course.  If you are up to the math, that's about $120 for the 40 pack...  A nice markup.  Keep one in each pocket and the hands will stay toasty.

But we get to play and the delay is not too long.

Phil is the member, this is an upscale course, and Sonny and I and Fred tag along to keep him company.  It's more fun to golf with friends.

We play and struggle a bit.  The wind is cool and the sun is hot.  The wind seems to make its presence felt as we play, all in all it's cooler than warmer.  I stay bundled up and pray for the toes to come back.  Reminds me of ice hockey days in my youth.  I've not checked recently, but there was a numb spot on a big toe from getting too cold.  It may still be that way.  It never turned black, so how bad could it be?

We finally end the round.  The sun looks low in sky and it feels like three in the afternoon to me. 

We stow our gear in cars and work our way back to the grill attached to the pro shop.  The grill is easily the size of the pro shop; it might be accurate to say the pro shop is attached to the grill...

We get outside seats.  This is not as bad as it seems as they have plastic drapes around the seating area and there are heaters mounted over head.  It's comfortable and since we've out in the 40 degree weather for 4 hours, this is quite comfortable.  Jackets are loosened and hats come off.

One of the perks of membership is that everyone gets a free glass of wine.  Sonny will only drink a small amount and Fred, well, Fred doesn't drink at all!  So the wine flows from Fred and Sonny to Phil and me.  Let's call them "healthy pours."

It's been a good day, out with "like minded men" and the wine is providing a warming glow through those who are partaking. 

<Now for the crux o' the matter!>

Phil likes his toys and he has brought a Yeti tumbler with him.  He likes to drink ginger juice for health reasons.  I think he said that he has gained 3 pounds by doing so.

Sonny notices the cup.  "I have one of those and I've left an icy drink in one in the car and the next morning there is still ice in the cup.  How does that happen?"

I'm tempted at this point to tell the old joke about the world's greatest invention.  It was the thermos bottle.  Provides cold drinks in the summer and hot in the winter!  How does it know?

But I refrain.  I'm trying to talk less these days.  It's not like the world doesn't need me, but I'm putting them on a knowledge diet.

The next question, hot on the heals of Sonny's is why hot drinks get cooler faster?

<Enthalpy of fusion, introduction and explanation...>

The boys look to me.  I'm kind of the go to guy for things that require useless knowledge.

"Well, ker-hum, it's quite simple.  Let's assume that the ambient temperature is 65 degrees.  A cold drink with ice is 32 degrees.  A hot drink, we know from Liebeck v. McDonald's, is about 180 degrees.  Now if we take the absolute value of the difference between the hot and the ambient and the cold and the ambient, it's clear that a cold drink has just a little less energy than ambient and the hot drink is quite hot -- about 40 degrees and about 115."

"It's obvious when we take into account the Stefan-Boltzmann equations, that the hot drink will lose energy much faster than the cold drink will acquire it.  But then you all knew that."  I look around to some looks that suggest they didn't.  I plunge on.

 "The Stefan-Boltzmann law states that objects radiate energy proportional to their absolute temperature to the 4th power.  In other words things shed heat faster than a golf ball heading for a trap."  I see nods of understanding around the table.  This is good.  I suspect that Al Gore doesn't know this.  How do you stay ahead of a 4th order power law?  Not easily, Al, not easily.

"The last piece of the puzzle is that of the enthalopy of fusion in the ice.  As you no doubt remember from junior high school chemistry, you can have a mixture of water and ice and it will be at 32 degrees.  As you add more heat to the mixture the temperature will not rise until the ice has melted.  In other words, it takes effort/energy to change the state of the ice to a liquid."

"Now Yeti cups and their ilk are dewar containers.  They have a vacuum insulation and were first invented by Jimmy Dewar in 1892.  But you guys all knew that.  Like most things they are not perfect and the heat will either move in or out depending and what it's holding.  Albeit slowly, but it will return to the ambient temperature given enough time."

At this point it seems that most have picked up their wines and even those who don't drink seem to be looking longingly at it.  The eyes have glazed at bit and thoughts of the famous Chipolte burger are intruding in the question of the day.   Thoughts have returned to the late game of golf with its successes and failures.  The sun seems to have settled a bit more and the course looks tired viewed through the wind blown plastic.  No one cares about the ice anymore...

The food comes and we eat in near silence.  No one asks anything else.  What conversation we have has danced over to the mundane.  

I reflect upon my vow of more silence for the year and see that while I've passed on some useful knowledge here, it might have been a bit much.  Perhaps I can lighten the conversation.  "How about those Giants!" I say.

I'm reminded that the baseball season has been over three months.  Well, you can't know everything.